Don Bosco at Dumaguete

RECTOR'S MESSAGE

Graduation Homily 25 March 2001

Dearest GRADUATES of Batch two thousand and one,

I've been here for 4 years, so have many of you. When you were just freshmen - new to the school - I was too. Now that you are leaving your alma mater, so will I. As you see we have so much in common.

When I arrived here (or even before coming here), I was very sad and lonely. I had been 11 years in Cebu and in coming over here I was going to miss my friends back there especially the Bosconians. Upon arriving here when I saw how different this school was from the other Don Bosco schools I had been assigned to in the past, the more I got depressed. And that depression lasted for half a year. For six months I was wrestling with my impending assignment as rector of this school.

But luckily I started to make friends - with the boarders first, then the few rondalla members I had, the choir members who were mostly from the senior class, and my students in Drafting 2 and Values Education 4. And this move I made reversed my initial decision to abandon my assignment in this place. By Christmas time I had decided to stay here.

I'm not good in constructing buildings. In fact in my first year as administrator here nothing changed in any of the school's physical structures. But I love Don Bosco very much and so I when I was already installed as rector in the following year I concentrated instead my efforts on the school's internal and less obvious structures. I decided to spend all my strength to make this school more Salesian, to make everyone here from students to teachers, workers and parents more Bosconian. This became my personal goal especially when I saw how little Don Bosco was known in St. Louis School. It was not surprising though for the Salesians had just arrived at Dumaguete in 1986. They were then only 11 years in St. Louis School.

Thus I tried my best to teach all of you who Don Bosco is - through the good morning talks, mass homilies, seminar on the Preventive System I gave to the new teachers and parents, through my classes with the second and fourth years. I employed my artistic talent too just to promote Don Bosco among you - through designs I made on the intrams and P.E. shirts even on the diary covers too. Remember the quotes from Don Bosco I emblazoned on your shirts.

"Love what the young love and they will love what you love."

"It is not enough to love the young. They must feel that they are loved."

"Run, jump, shout and do whatever you like as long as you do not sin."

"There is no such thing as a bad youth. You just have to touch the right cord and any youth will open wide a generous heart."

"What you see happening to these wild animals - turning into gentle lambs - you would also do to my children: the Young."

Every club meeting I had with the ACDC or artists' club and the BOSDAKS or rondalla always ended with a visit to the chapel. The chapel visit is a Bosconian practice so dear to Don Bosco. Whenever I could, I sat down for confession because Don Bosco believed in the strong power of the sacraments in the task of molding the young. Through the core meetings of the EPC or Educative Pastoral Community and the friendly talks I had with the teachers and workers, I tried to strengthen family bonds in our community here because Don Bosco taught about family spirit in all his institutions. This was again our purpose in having the recollections and festivities done common for our teachers and workers. At break time I tried my best to be at the reach of students because that's when, according to Don Bosco, salesian assistance - the help we extend to our young students - is most needed.

And by God's grace all of the adults in this school cooperated in making this personal dream of mine almost a reality. This was because in the past 3 years many of your educators admitted that they too like the Salesians started to believe in Don Bosco. And because your educators believed in him, they begun to share my personal goal and even own it for themselves as a community aim. And you on your part as well as the rest of the student population responded to all your educators' efforts.

In fact all of us at SLS-Don Bosco did well. We have formed a family in our school among our students, pupils, Salesians, teachers, workers and parents. Many of the teachers confided to me that they found Don Bosco's system as very effective in dealing with students especially the more problematic ones. The idea to advertise about the Preventive System of Don Bosco and the Family Spirit existing in SLS-DB at the Tayada sa Plaza came from the teachers. Many of our employees at school started to be friendly with the students trusting what Don Bosco said to be true: "Education is a matter of the heart. If you have the confidence of the young, they will do anything for you."

Unfortunately not all understand the spirit in our school. Some commented that our students are wild. Even some past pupils said rather negatively that our present students are very different from the way they were before. Some of us here too might have remarked that our Bosconians are not at all disciplined.

But are they really undisciplined? Or do they just feel at home at school that they are just their real selves whenever they are here with us? When there was the concert by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in the Macias Auditorium two years ago, our Bosconians were seated closest to the performers because the organizers believed our students were well behaved. And behaved well they did. In fact one bass player was so impressed by our students' decorum that he couldn't resist asking them: "From which school do you come from?" When our students sponsored the dawn rosary procession to the cathedral last February of the Jubilee Year, were not the people enthused not only with the discipline but even more by the vivacity of our bosconians' participation in the mass? Inspite of criticisms we hear about our students, more people appreciate the way our Bosconians are formed here.

Definitely the young today are not anymore like the young of yesteryears. Definitely the way the Salesians educate the young is different from the way other schools do it. But in general Don Bosco's way works most effectively among the young better than any other system of other schools.

So my dear Graduates, as you take leave of SLS - Don Bosco, promise to keep the Bosconian Spirit alive in your hearts. As I've told the batches before you, so now I tell you too: you are Bosconians forever. You might enroll in Silliman University next year and be called a SIllimanian. But remember deep within you, you are still and always will be a Bosconian because your young and most formative years were spent here with us at Don Bosco. Nothing can change that. If ever you would be good in anything later on, it is because you had been well formed here at Don Bosco. The seeds had been planted here; the flowers and fruits will only blossom after you leave us.

To my dear teachers and non-teaching staff, including the workers and all those not directly involved in teaching - all of whom make up the educators at SLS-DB - my sincerest gratitude for your efforts in molding our Bosconians here would never be enough. I once more express my heartfelt thanks to you all on behalf of the Salesian community and the Bosconians themselves. For the coming years let us all be more like Don Bosco who, like the Good Shepherd who had looked after the lost sheep, always searched for the poor and needy youth. Let's do the same at school. Our mission is primarily to the wild animals and not so much to the gentle lambs - although the latter could always help us in our work with the former. Like Don Bosco, let us heed the Virgin's words in his dream at 9: "transform my young children from wild animals to gentle lambs".

To the Parents, thank you for trusting us with your children. Thank you for believing in Don Bosco. Thank you for sharing and owning for yourselves his dream. After your daughters and sons, you deserve our warmest congratulations. In all the past 16 years of your children's young lives, you were always there. You brought them to this graduation. Hopefully in the 4 years that we guided your children, we have also taught them to be grateful to you. God bless us all.